JON REES: Sorry, but more economic pain is on the way

Mark Carney said at his Mansion House speech last week that economic growth and falling unemployment happened so much faster than ‘either we or anyone else expected’.

That’s a little worrying. After all, the Governor of the Bank of England really ought not to have been blindsided by what is happening outside his office.

It was Carney, of course, whose ‘forward guidance’ last year was that the trigger for considering a base rate rise would be when unemployment fell below 7 per cent, which he said was likely to be in 2016. It is now 6.6 per cent and has been below Carney’s magic number for some time.

So let’s hope he is better at sorting out mortgages than he is at forecasting. Measures to curb mortgage lending have been brought in to curb a potentially overheating economy and to prick an incipient housing bubble.

Of course, it is wonderful news that Britain’s output is finally higher than its 2008 peak. But two points are worth remembering. First, even France, mocked as everything we shouldn’t be, with its high taxes and restrictive labour laws, recovered from recession faster than the UK – and so did the US, Germany and Canada.

Second, the recovery will be meaningful when most people feel it. Average annual earnings growth sank to 0.7 per cent in the three months to April and real incomes are not expected to hit 2009-10 levels until 2018. That is a long time for those struggling to keep their heads above water – and a rise in the cost of borrowing will only make that worse.

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Henri Proglio may not be a household name in Britain, but for millions of consumers he is the man who keeps the lights on.

The boss of French energy giant EDF is being investigated over allegations that he used corporate funds to finance his wife Rachida Khalil’s comedy show. She won fine reviews in Paris, but she could have a field day over here with the UK’s energy market.

Proglio denies wrongdoing and says he has reimbursed any money that came his wife’s way from EDF sources. Her accounts, he said, were ‘artistic’ – which is what consumers might say about the energy firms’ charging.

Britain’s chaotic energy market took another turn for the worse last week after regulator Ofgem called for the major suppliers to explain their prices.

Its power was demonstrated when British Gas promptly refused to do anything of the sort. If there was any doubt that Ofgem would formally refer the energy industry to the Competition and Markets Authority for its first full investigation, it has certainly evaporated now.